Every evening around 6 p.m., I notice a lizard creep up on a side wall of my balcony. Often, I stare as it lays still on the wall, it’s black eyes staring through the glass sliding doors of my balcony, and inside at me. Soon it moves and creeps up further on the wall. At times when the sliding door is slightly ajar, it makes sure to make an entry inside the house, and manage to get onto the black teak cupboards that are adjacent to the balcony. I see it crawl up and onto the storage space over the cupboards, and then make its way from the shut door of the storage space, till the end of the cupboards and then crawl to the side of the cupboards and eventually out of the room.
The first time this happened, I thought I lost it and it won’t visit anymore. That it had ventured off into a new horizon somewhere in my living room, and now had a better space to live in. Most people do not like lizards, and honestly, I’m not a big fan either. I do not really have any sort of emotional attachment to it, so if tomorrow it doesn’t show up at my balcony wall it really wouldn’t make a difference to me. For all I know, the lizard that I keep seeing is not the same since day one. Maybe at some point, the previous lizard died and now the lizard that visits is a different one. I wouldn’t know. I do not observe lizards too much.
How did I notice it? Or why do I notice it rather? Well, my mother is terrified of any kind of non-human creatures, especially the creepy crawly ones, to quite some extent. So it’s not a fear I have but it’s a secondary fear of sorts? I define a primary fear as a fear I have on my own. Something I’m afraid of myself. Secondary fear would be something someone close to me is afraid of, and as a result, that thing has a spot in my mind. So whenever I see something that is feared by someone I know, my mind goes ahead and connects it to this person and their fears, and since I’m not scared of this thing, all I do is stare.
So now you see, when after seeing it for days in my balcony, visiting every day, I saw it quietly go through my room into my living room, I presumed I won’t see it in its regular spot anymore. Why would I? I thought it had a better living space now. My living room had some pretty fascinating things. An old grandfather’s clock made of dark wood, the pendulum of which makes a loud reverberating noise every hour sits alone in the hall, with a few paintings for company. These paintings are antiques and have spider webs all over them, and gaps behind them for the crawly visitor to roam about. So you see, the entire setting of my living room was quite the horror movie scene, and a lizard would fit in well. Moreover, it’s raining a lot outside lately. Maybe the lizard came in for shelter. I thought it’d make a good housing place from the rain for this visitor of mine.
Yet the next day, I saw it come back to the balcony wall, the same way it used to every day. Then the day after. And the day after. It kept coming back, just sticking to the wall and looking inside for a while and then continuing on its journey towards the inner sides of my balcony, and occasionally if the balcony door is open, inside, to the cupboards, and then disappear into the living room. I wonder why it does so. I have been too lazy to get off my bed and go follow it to the living room and see where it goes, and how it makes its way out. As I said, I’m not too attached to it.
Author: Srushti G
Email: [email protected]
Author Bio: Industrial Designer in progress, and aspiring author. Too many dreams, and only one life. Very lazy, quite introverted, and will not step out if not required. Feel free to send a Pizza in.
Link to social media: Twitter @Srushti_98
